Bobcat sightings have increased a dozen-fold in my suburban/urban neighborhood.

MaeZe said:

. We have bat rabies.

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The UK is said to be free of rabies, but it is sometimes found in bats. Nobody knows how the odd bat becomes infected, but because a bat has never passed on rabies to anything, the UK keeps its rabies-free status.

We here in Anchorage, Alaska, have two flavors of bears roaming the major parklands, and the black bears, especially, are comfortable roaming neighborhoods, including my yard. They are a big problem with garbage. We did have a man killed a few weeks ago by a brown bear while hiking a well-used trail more or less on the edge of town.

Beyond that, we have coyotes, lynx and foxes, and even wolves just outside town. All of them are a danger for pets, and a good reason never to let your cats or dogs run loose. Coyotes and foxes are pretty happy being around humans. Lynx we see less often, because they are generally nocturnal and prefer to stay away from humans, but I've seen them twice in town, once in my yard. Even wolverines are not far away, although i don't know of any sightings of them in the city.

And bald eagles, which have been known to snatch a tiny dog.

Too far north for cougars and bobcats though. Also too far north for raccoons and skunks and, thankfully, snakes.

caw

So, last night around 6, when I was just getting ready to call hubby for dinner, I glanced out the window into the back yard. I always look for rabbits because we have 3-6 of them living out there. I did not see a rabbit. I saw a bobcat! It was just lounging in the grass like the Queen of Sheba. It stayed for at least half an hour, until my BIL started chucking tennis balls over the wall at it. He lives next door and has a Boston Terrier he was concerned about. The bobcat did not run, just sauntered off into the shrubbery. For all we know it could still be out there.

We've lived in this house 43 years and have never seen a bobcat even in our area, much less our yard.

MM

MaryMumsy said:

So, last night around 6, when I was just getting ready to call hubby for dinner, I glanced out the window into the back yard. I always look for rabbits because we have 3-6 of them living out there. I did not see a rabbit. I saw a bobcat! It was just lounging in the grass like the Queen of Sheba. It stayed for at least half an hour, until my BIL started chucking tennis balls over the wall at it. He lives next door and has a Boston Terrier he was concerned about. The bobcat did not run, just sauntered off into the shrubbery. For all we know it could still be out there.

We've lived in this house 43 years and have never seen a bobcat even in our area, much less our yard.

MM

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Wow! So very cool.

We've been having more and more cougar sightings here in TN. And Coyotes and bobcats are just part of the scenery around my area. ( I live an a fairly wooded spot in middle Tn. )

One of these days I'll have to see about posting some of the pics I have on my computer... Deer, woodpeckers, racoons, foxes, you name it. 3 years ago I had a white tail fawn walk up to my back fence and let me reach over and pet it. And lately the coyotes have been getting into my new, ex-suburbanite neighbor's trash.

Oh, and I also have a couple of snakes around my place that I've all but turned into pets. One's a Black Racer, the other a Pine Snake of some kind.

Also, for you bird watchers, there's a pair of Peregrine Falcons that are nesting in a tall tree out front, and at least a couple of large owls over the fence in my back "yard". ( It's woods, really. Not so much a yard. )

Black Racers are very cool snakes--one lives around my yard (suburbs, but huge zoning and backing up to a large swathe of empty land owned by the army.)

The wild turkeys are taking over eastern MA. Flocks of them wander down the roads in blithe unconcern; the babies from the spring are now gawky adolescents.

Found the pic of the little guy ( or gal ) that came to visit me 3 years ago:



Sorry about the pic size... That's actually the small, cut-down one. And further reduced by Google.

Hard to tell in this picture but that deer is less than 10 feet from me at that point.

And yes, that's my backyard, just the other side of the fence that keeps my dogs in.


O.H.

In my preceding post I forgot to mention moose. Probably because they are so common. Anchorage, Alaska is the moose capital of the planet, with huge areas of wooded parkland within the city confines which are perfect moose habitat. They are in my yard with regularity. I've had moms give birth in my yard.

We also have beaver right in town, on several creeks that run through the city.

But I think my favorite local wildlife are probably the porcupines. They are just fun to see, being slow and plodding and unafraid of much of anything. And spiky. Locals with dogs have common issues with the porcs, because no dog alive is smart enough not to take a bite at one. I know of a neighbor who has had to have the same dog treated at the vet several times for removal of porc quills.

caw

MaeZe said:

Neighbor saw a bobcat a block away headed this way last evening. There is an unbuilt-on lot there which is somewhat like a narrow greenbelt but it's not connected to the woods. That means the kitty wanders the neighborhood, not just the edges.

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Yup. The kitty we saw in our yard a couple of weeks ago was easily two miles from the closest open desert. Although there are two golf courses only a mile away.

MM

Can't believe no one posted this yet.

Not a cat named Bob...

Just heard a report that we've got a young Black Bear roaming around my neck o' the woods...
I can't help but hope that it'll run some of these city folk off, and it'll go back to being quiet here.